Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Horses urinating in stalls

From: Sue

Can you tell me why my horse would prefer to urinate in their stalls where they are going to lay down as opposed to going outside? They can roam freely indoors and out...

Thank You

Hi Sue! Yes, and it's a very simple answer. Horses really dislike getting their legs splashed when they urinate. Most will avoid urinating on a hard, flat surface unless they have no choice. They will urinate in long grass or on soft ground, but will almost always prefer to look for a pile of shavings or other bedding -- anything absorbent.

This, incidentally, is one reason to put shavings down in the trailer if you are hauling your horse a long distance. If there is an absorbent layer in the trailer, the horse is far more likely to urinate at a rest stop -- if he is standing on bare trailer mats or trailer flooring, he will probably try to avoid urinating until the trip is over.

If you want to teach your horses to urinate outside, you may need to put some bedding material in one corner of their paddocks and shut them out of their stalls. I'm not sure that it's worth the effort. ;-)

Jessica

Materials from Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE, The Newsletter of Holistic Horsemanship® may be distributed and copied for personal, non-commercial use provided that all authorship and copyright information, including this notice, is retained. Materials may not be republished in any form without express permission of the author.

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org

Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.